Wallace opened her eyes, lying in bed.
It was hard to determine where Eilidh stopped and Wallace began. She still felt like a teenage girl, just six foot four with a salt and pepper goatee and bulging muscles. She definitely thought like a 14-year-old girl and, unlike her male counterparts, found it a lot easier to maintain her focus when she was around scantily clad women, which seemed to be all the time in this game. Of course, if she was dealing with a cute guy, that became harder, though most of the men in this game were creepy, and few excited her. Plus, her brother was watching her, so . . .
Wallace shook her head. She was definitely a paladin named Wallace and insisted on being called that while in the game. Brodie made a compromise with the nickname “Wally,” but everyone else used her avatar’s name, and she preferred it that way. But when it came to attacking and resolving problems, she used her feminine intuition, which served her well. She imagined Jace didn’t have this problem and probably looked exactly like he did in the real world, at least when disguised as a human. She hoped he didn’t look like an orc.
Her room was spartan, with only a bed, dresser, and a large chest. It was on the second floor of a keep on the edge of Easterton, a Non-Hostile city where many low-level characters established spawn points. They weren’t powerful enough to earn their own stronghold, but they could get a room with a locked door to store their items and be confident that no one would steal them. All Wallace had to do was go on a brief monster hunt to earn a bed in this keep, and it didn’t cost her any gold. If she was going to stick it out this time and go past level 12, she might need to find herself a real place.
For now, she just sat on her bed and pulled up her character sheet. A travel node sat just outside the keep, so anywhere in the realms was only a few minutes away. When they heard back from Vithium, she could get to Mizzeray in a flash. While she waited, she studied her stats and tried to form a plan for the upcoming module. She was so used to doing the same quests repeatedly that this level of planning usually wasn’t necessary.
[https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AIL4fc_JeCyfVfALNjtS55lmHm2-uR1o9qCeZ4hIhvUooLrC-vxBL6MeObJfOfXAF0Wzk0UTM2Q1Z1k_Be1vFXwmzr9sG74mWr2zkiIASpUTp2A0NUaBl4jty1IKccNMLgG08KTWploWGoUslS9y9yq_NK7c=w783-h914-s-no?authuser=2]
Looking at her stats after seeing the character sheets of Jace and his companions was frustrating. None of her base-level abilities were at 20. She had a ring of Strength +2 and Wisdom +2, but the game only let her wear one at a time, and she had neither on now. She was supposed to have her Constitution +2 ring also, but her last mission with Jace had screwed up her strategy, and she had leveled up to 10 before she could take the Constitution trials. That would have not only given her the ring but bumped her stat up to 18, and then she could have taken her level 10 bonus in Spirit, raising that to 14. Instead, she had taken her level 10 bonus in Constitution, leaving her Spirit at 13, giving her only 60 mana, barely enough to do anything.
Wallace had a True Strike enchantment on her axe, a Turning spell loaded into a ring, and a belt that gave her +10 to Damage Resistance for ten rounds. All of those took 50 mana to fully charge, and she double-checked to ensure they were still ready. She tried to fill them before logging off, but she didn’t always have time to let her mana recharge. She also had a helmet with a critical protection, but she didn’t have the mana to charge it and had to pay someone else to do it. She didn’t have many spells but could raise her Strength or Wisdom by one for ten turns or by five for one. That was useful if she needed to ensure a killing blow.
Her specialty was killing the undead. Her goddess, Nexpira, gave her feats instead of spells. She had Solid Spirit, which let her hit spirits with physical weapons for full damage. Usually, spirits only took half-damage from weapons, and since they had high Magic Defense, magical damage was also hard to get through. She also had Defensive Turning, which allowed her to use her impressive Magic Defense skill as her Difficulty when casting Turn Undead. That spell was like the Charm+ mage spell, and she could usually Daze or Stun low-level zombies and skeletons, making them much easier to kill. Zombies took less damage from blunt weapons, and skeletons took less damage from bladed weapons, but her axe, named Hammer Head, was double-sided, with a massive hammer head opposite the cutting arc. It bit like a shark but hit like a hammer. Her last feat simply gave her +5 damage to the undead.
For Paladins, there were several starting packages, and she chose Undead Hunter. Her bonus feats included the Lay-On-Hands feat, which added twice her level to her heal ability. She had also taken the next level feat, giving her a bonus of 30. If she touched an undead, she could damage them using this ability, but her axe usually did more. She hadn’t found a weapon to let her channel this ability, which made sense. Adding +39 damage to an attack against the undead sounded a bit overpowered.
Shield Bash was the ability to attack using your shield. If successful, you could throw your opponent backward, which was helpful when surrounded by opponents. Undead Defense gave her a +5 to her Armor Class and Magic Defense when defending attacks or spells from undead opponents.
For her normal feats, she had focused on training her Magic Defense up to the maximum +15 bonus and did the same for her Shield training, allowing her to tank against magical and physical attacks.
She had found all the undead quests she could, and her strategy was always the same: cast Turn Undead, raise her shield, and start hacking up everything that shuffled in her direction. She had a counter for all of their tricks, and her Magic Defense was so high that any spells they cast, she could always defend.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
This module would be different, and she hoped Vithium could fill in the gaps, assuming he ever responded.
{Wally,} Brodie said in her mind, yanking her out of her contemplation. {I just heard back from Vithium. He said he’s game as long as it isn’t too dangerous.}
Wallace shrugged her shoulders. She had never attempted the module before, and no one had done it how she was about to try. “It shouldn’t be too bad. There is a vicious monster, but it isn’t after us, and we don’t need to kill it; one of the brothers takes care of that. Also, Vithium is a few levels higher than me, so the module will set the difficulty between us, and he should be okay.”
Brodie relayed this information and came back that Vithium would meet them in five minutes. Wallace stood up, stretched her long limbs, and left the room.
----------------------------------------
Mizzeray, as the phonetic pronunciation of the city suggested, was a miserable place. It was always dark and foggy, like a Victorian-era horror movie. It was a hostile zone, but Non-PVP, so you only had to worry about the locals attacking. The city was constantly churning out organic quests where players could stumble upon a murder victim, rescue a woman from a thief, or investigate a series of missing persons. A few official modules kicked off in this city also. Wallace had already completed a grave-robbing quest several levels ago where she had to take down a dozen zombies and the necromancer who summoned them.
Now she stood just outside the lamp light behind a tree, shielding herself from the main traffic down the central street, keeping an eye on the travel node. It was early morning global time as the game ran off GMT, and few NPCs were out at this hour. Even fewer PCs were about, and Wallace was happy to see them walking with a purpose rather than wandering about looking for something to do. When the module she was interested in reset, she didn’t want anyone to see her enter it.
Vithium didn’t keep Wallace waiting long, and he appeared a few minutes later, looking distressed at the gloomy environment. The paladin strode toward him, and he recognized her in a flash and relaxed. “You know I have beachfront property,” he said. “The sun was just about to come up. The view is incredible, and you invite me here.”
The monk wore a simple tunic tied with a bright blue sash at his waste. He wore leather boots and loose-fitting pants. His head was bald save for a dark ponytail hanging from the back of his head. She saw a few rings on his fingers and bracers on his forearms. He was far less equipped than she was, with her full plate, helm, shield, axe, and half a dozen other magical items. He didn’t even have a weapon.
“Nice to see you again,” she said, extending her hand. “Still no word on Tami?”
Vithium shook his head. “I have plenty of other options, though,” he said, always the salesman. “I don’t have any mermaids at the moment, but I have a sea druid. You’d be amazed what a well-trained octopus can do with eight arms and a . . .”
Wallace held up her hand, her stomach turning at the idea. “Tami and I . . .” she started and then paused. “We had a connection. We talked. We were friends.”
“Hey,” he said, holding up his hands to ward off any other negative reaction. “I don’t judge. I don’t judge.” They lapsed into silence for a moment before he broke it. “So what is this about? Your operator said I can get a valuable NPC out of this quest, and it isn’t too dangerous.”
Wallace nodded. “Yes. I’m after a druid, and you can have the spellsword. He should complement your fighting style quite well.”
“It’s easy? Not too many hard battles? This is my first time through the game, and I think I am doing pretty well for myself. I don’t want to lose what I got.”
Wallace nodded, seeing he was at level 12. It made him a tempting target for higher players, and she understood his caution. “I plan on trying a new tactic to get two NPCs out of this quest, so I can’t guarantee everything will be perfect, but there usually isn’t much danger.”
“If the module is so great,” he said, “where is everyone else? Shouldn’t this place be swarming with players standing in line to initiate it?”
“I have inside information,” Wallace said. “It will be released in a few minutes. Several hours ago, another player killed the party leaders for half a dozen NPCs and asked me if I wanted the first crack at them. We are friends.”
“Jace Thorne?” Vithium asked, a twinkle in his eye.
Wallace tried to shrug noncommittedly, but her face gave it away.
The monk laughed. “I do my research too,” he said. “Or, at least, my operator does. I wouldn’t have the Gilded Swan if it weren’t for him, and reports said you and him teamed up for that storm-the-castle module yesterday.”
Wallace shrugged and didn’t confirm it. “We should get going.” She offered her partner an invitation to join an alliance. It wasn’t the same as becoming party members, which was out of the question, but it allowed them to send messages and share senses. They could also split experience points for kills easier this way.
Once he accepted, Vithium extended his hand toward the city's main street in the traditional “After you” gesture. The paladin took the hint and led the way. They passed several dark alleys where cries could be heard and investigated. A few shop owners voiced their displeasure at being robbed the previous night, and a woman was crying because her youngest son was missing. Wallace ignored it all and headed toward a non-descript bookstore off a little used side street. Checking out the foot traffic before entering, she ensured they weren’t being watched and opened the door.
{You have one minute,} Brodie informed her as they closed the door behind them.
The shop was empty save for the NPC owner, who scrambled out from a back room to greet them. Since the last completion of this module a couple of weeks ago, the store had been cleaned out of anything valuable, which wasn’t much, and no one visited it anymore. Wallace needed to be sure no players were camped out inside. It was a fairly ludicrous strategy to pick a starting point of a random module and then wait for it to reset, but some players had nothing better to do, and some modules were valuable enough and volatile enough to warrant it. As far as she could tell, no one was here.
“Good day, fine sirs,” the shopkeeper said. “I have quite a collection of martial tactics and other books you might be interested in. Please have a look and let me know if you need anything.”
Vithium was reasonably inexperienced at the game and still played it as if it were real. “Thank you, sir. We will let you know if . . .”
His voice cut out, the image around them disappeared, and they were suddenly transported out of the shop and dumped back into the street.
“What the . . .” Vithium said, having never experienced that before.
Wallace was expecting it, and after a quick recheck of the street to ensure no PCs were watching, she led him right back into the shop.